Choosing the Latter Option Might as Well Work Better
by IvyStory
Summary: In one snowy day, one serene day, in a small village- Hijikata couldn't avoid his fate of meeting an unconscious stranger laying down in the middle of the mountain. First meeting AU (Gintoki-Hijikata)


_It was when I was walking through the small path of the mountain... that I found him unconsciously, laying down on the ground. Blood stains could be seen on most part of his white haori. The guy was gripping his sword tightly, as if he was afraid that it would be taken away while he was out of conscious. Then, without having much consideration, I lifted one of his unmoved arm and placed it on my shoulder._

_There's just something about this guy that made me couldn't leave him alone._

* * *

"Kondou-san." A guy with long silky black hair, ponytail style, looked up to the cloudy, leaden sky. His two blue orbs were observing the snow which had been falling unstoppably.

"What is it, Toshi?" Replied a man whose name was known as Kondou.

The both of them were sitting on the veranda of Kondou's dojo. Winter had already come, and the never-ending snow weather which continuously going from previous mid-night 'till morning produced the whole area around the city to be covered by pure white snow. Not only did the snow cover the houses, bushes, trees, but several paths were also blocked by a big amount of snow, causing the students of Kondou's dojo to be unable to attend the class.

"Do you think the market still have some foods to spare?" The ponytailed guy continued. Hijikata Toshirou was his name, and the man beside him, Kondou, just liked to call him by his given name, Toshi, indicating how close their friendship was.

Kondou wondered for a moment, he rubbed his chin as he said—"Ah… I can't say for sure. It's winter already and many farmers might have abandoned their fields by now." He looked at his friend before continued, "Even I do leave my field every winter, you know. Haha, being a farmer is surely hard, isn't it, Toshi?" He followed with a light chuckle.

As time passed, there was only small amount of snow falling out from the sky. Hijikata got up from his seat, "I'm going home, Kondou-san."

"Eh?! That soon? It's only around 10 A.M, Toshi?!" The man turned his head backward where his friend just headed, alas—the Toshi guy was already nowhere to be seen. "Well, take care!" Kondou said again, hoping that Hijikata could still hear him. Then, the sound of the door being shut echoed through the hall of the dojo.

* * *

The day had reached its peak when snow stopped falling out from the sky. The sun which had been hiding behind the clouds was now slowly starting to come out from its hiding place, providing light into some parts of the city. The temperature of the city, though, was still very cold, that it probably could pierce the very back of the skin whether using a thick scarf or not.

And herein, a young man—wearing only a dark blue yukata and thin black _haori_ jacket, was walking through the small and rough path of the mountain—planning to return home after sparing some of his free time around the market. To his surprise, Hijikata succeeded to buy some stuffs at least to cover up his daily needs for the following days.

"Good thing I'm using my straw hat all the time…" The raven sighed, "It's gotten hot all of sudden." Talking to himself, he looked up at the sky which had gotten clearer than before. The sun was no longer afraid to show its true color, it seemed.

*THUD*

"… Huh?" Hijikata realized that there's something near his foot which almost tripped him over. It didn't feel like a hard object, neither safe to say that it's something soft too. _"What's that?" _He wondered, and looked down to his feet.

"**_?!_**" Surprised upon what he had just seen, Hijikata's eyes bug out as he stepped back furiously, "**WHAT THE HELL?!"**

The shock that took him over made his breath became rapid and unsteady. Hijikata tried to swallow his saliva and took a deep breath of the cold and refreshing mountain air.

"A fresh corpse in the middle of the mountain?! 'Gotta be kidding me!" He grumbled.

Being three meters away from the said-corpse, Hijikata glanced over at the body again and thought what he should do for now. He chose not to observe the corpse too much, though he was pretty certain that some parts of the man's clothing were covered by blood, also his arms and foots… and probably his hair (which abnormally looked so white), were pilled by snow. Hijikata was wondering just how long had the man been there. The path, the bamboos, the branches, everything around Hijikata was covered by snow—but he's sure that he'd be safe if he just took the sideway of the path, so that he didn't have to step on the corpse.

"Well…" He got a hold of his straw hat, as the other hand kept the _furoshiki_ bag which was wrapped around his neck being steady. "I'm off, man. Sorry for leaving you."

The young man started his step, the trip to his house was still kind of far away after all, and just when he was going to past through the said-corpse, he faintly heard a sound… "Uurgh…" Or at least, Hijikata _thought_ he heard something.

"What…?" He took a glance to the corpse (or that's what he thought it was), making sure if what he just heard was something that came out from the stranger's mouth. A vain it was, though, since the man's face was facing the snowy ground—unable to be seen.

Hijikata just wanted to get the heck out of that place, leaving that body behind for all he could ever care, but then… something caught his eyes.

_Something_ that not every person was able to have was in fact on that stranger's hand. And that hand… he was certain that it moved not too long ago, even if just a bit.

The raven went to a crouching position, his legs were shaking, unknown if it was because of the cold or the situation he was in right now, and unwittingly—the more his hands going closer to the stranger's face, the more they were starting to shake too. He lifted the stranger's face, and… there it was.

Hijikata could see a face of a young man in his 18-ish, most likely the same as his age, it looked so pale—almost had the same color with that stranger's own hair even, which Hijikata just realized that the hair was totally silver-white colored. Two eyebrows twitching as if the owner of the body was under a certain pressure and uncomfortable condition, despite the cold temperature the mountain had right now—the young man was sweating madly as if he was having a fever, and the lips—as if it had no color—were shaking and there were cracks on the lips.

"How the heck did he become like this…?!"

Knowing that the body wasn't a corpse after all, he braved himself to check the young man's body. Hijikata lifted the body by the stomach onto a sitting position. That's when _almost_ everything was found out, the cause of the man's suffering—was that there's a long sword cut through the front-side of his shoulder to his chest. And indeed, Hijikata expected a huge amount of blood stains around the front-side of the young man's clothing.

"Tch. At least you're alive, young man." Had the raven seen a lot of cuts, even he himself had cut countless of people. But to treat a severe wound like this—a familiar wound… Just why did he feel uncertain to treat such an injury…?

_"Please hang in there."_

* * *

It took around fifteen minutes for Hijikata and the wounded man to finally reach Hijikata's small house. He hurriedly entered his house with the wounded man's arm still around Hijikata's shoulders. Then, he carefully seated the young man's body on one side of the room.

"I'm gonna spread the futon for you so just wait up." The raven said to the other. He wasn't sure if he was listening or not, to be honest. Though, the stranger seemed to show a sign of consciousness while they were on their way to Hijikata's house back then.

He hung the straw hat that he had been wearing throughout his trip, he also put down the _furoshiki_ bag which contained his precious daily needs from the market on the side of the room—planning to arrange them later, and finally—he spread the futon in the middle of the room. All he did with hurried steps.

Finished with the futon, he's back to escort the wounded man to the futon. Just when Hijikata was about to lift the man by his arm, he glanced at the left hand of the wounded man which kept gripping a certain stuff tightly, unable to be released. He wasn't sure what to do, should he just force him to release that stuff?

"Lem'me keep that sword somewhere else." Hijikata moved to the left side of the seated young man. He took his left hand and tried to release the tight grip of the stranger's fingers around the sword.

Such an elegant sword it was… A crimson red for its long handgrip with gold strip patterns, and there was a long crimson red colored rope bounded around the wooden scabbard. It might look dirty and dull at the first glance—but only if it was paired with the man who carried the sword—that the true value and its mighty appearance could be seen.

"_Dull, dirty, and full of blood…" _Hijikata was finally able to pull the sword from the stranger, as he observed the sword thoroughly before putting it on a small square-shaped table, _"No wonder why this guy smells different from normal thugs."_

* * *

Slowly, carefully, yet surely—Hijikata put the young man to the futon, earning a groan from the other. The raven stood up, and he sighed— somehow in relieve. _"Finally, he's somewhere safe."_ He thought, as he wiped the sweat from his forehead. The V-shaped bangs of his had become sticky through the sweat.

Still, looking at the big and probably deep wound throughout his shoulder to chest couldn't soothe him yet. No matter how he looked at it, closely or from far away—the wound seemed pretty serious to Hijikata. He frowned, a deep crease on the raven's forehead clearly stated that he was in the middle of a serious thinking.

"Hey." Hijikata went to a crouching position, again. "Don't mind if I remove your clothing, 'kay?"

He waited for a moment, 2 seconds perhaps, yet didn't get an answer such as approval nor disapproval, the wounded man was only sweating and breathing unsteadily, and so—Hijikata took that as an OK.

"Alright." He sighed as he got up and started to walk towards the back yard of his house, there was a well which he usually used to draw water.

"_... Wait._"

Again, Hijikata thought he heard something. He stopped his step and looked back at the wounded young man.

"… Don't… just easily allow yourself… to undress me, Ponytail." Aghast Hijikata was, though. Not ever had he imagined the stranger to wake so fast—not even when he hadn't done anything to treat his wound yet!

But wait— "What…?!" Only after he gave a second thought to what the stranger just said that he couldn't help but to… feel abashed. "I—**What the heck did you just said?!**"

Hijikata stomped over to the stranger who had just got himself to a sitting position on the futon. He was rubbing the back of his head which Hijikata just noticed that there was a muddy headband tied up around his forehead, hidden under the stranger's thick snowy hair.

"I mean… urgh…" The stranger was still sweating with eyebrows twitching, as if he's hiding his pain— "You should at least… loose this headband first, shouldn't you?" He continued, "It's hurting my head… yeah?"

"_If it's hurting your head then why did you wear it in the first place?!"_ The raven thought.

Opening his eyes, two glowing red orbs appeared as the stranger lifted up his eyelids. A pale skin he had, snow-like hair, two red eyes, and the style of a warrior he seemed… Hijikata couldn't help but to snort.

_"Did I just choose a wrong person to help, huh?!_" The raven stood in front of the stranger, frowning he was and the lazy stare from the stranger didn't help him to regain his mood. At all.

"I've helped you this far and you're still asking for something?" Again, he snorted. "Tell me, Stranger." Hijikata fixed his gaze at the said-guy,

"Who _are _you?"

A staring battle it was—for Hijikata perhaps. Should he continue to treat the stranger or should he just leave him be—would be decided by the answer from the stranger.

The white-haired guy stayed silent for awhile, still—he unmovingly looked towards the raven.

"…Sakata Gintoki."

The young man exhaled, a smirk showed up on his lips,

"Just call me Gin."

As he dropped to the futon and lost conscious for the following two days.

* * *

Bewildered he was, though—Hijikata couldn't forget the last look that the _Gin_ guy gave him at the last second of their first introduction.

**To Be Continued**

* * *

**NOTES **

o Firstly inspired by Abaraya's beautifully-made artwork. (Cover Image) (/cries)

o Haori is a lightweight coat worn over kimono, it can also be used as a jacket.

o Furoshiki is a traditional Japanese wrapping cloth, it can be used for gift, grocery shopping or even as clothing.

o Possible major-spoilers in the future.

o Rating might change in the future.

o Review/Follow/Fav are highly appreciated! 3


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